Przejdź do głównej treści

Widok zawartości stron Widok zawartości stron

News

Nawigacja okruszkowa Nawigacja okruszkowa

Widok zawartości stron Widok zawartości stron

Protests in Iran

Protests in Iran

For the last two weeks, Iran has been torn by a wave of social protests. We asked Dr Karolina Rakowiecka-Asgari from the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Philology Department of Iranian Studies to explain how the events have unfolded and what lies at their root.

The last two weeks saw the longest unbroken wave of protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the revolution of 1979. The protests broke out after the death of young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, taken and most probably severely beaten by the infamously brutal vice squad. Although lately there was no shortage of appalling incidents that came as a shock to the Iranian public opinion, the event that took place on 16 September proved to be a watershed. Mahsa’s funeral in her hometown of Saqqez turned into a demonstration, and the slogan ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ (Woman, Life, Freedom), historically tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the fight against ISIS, was quickly translated into Persian, Iran’s most popular language, and spread across the entire country.

Mahsa herself turned out to be a great symbol for many different social groups that over the years protested in the streets, but not always in unison. Despite Internet cut-offs and downplaying the number of casualties by the government, it can definitely be said that the protests have now reached a massive scale, with demonstrations being organised in about 100 cities and famous figures expressing their vocal support in the Internet and other media. The hashtag #mahsaamini (#محسا_امینی) has already been shared on Twitter more than 100 million times.

For the Kurds, Mahsa is the symbol of long-standing oppression (even her name, Mahsa, was forced upon her by the government in place of her own Kurdish name, Jina). For many Iranians, such a display of cruelty towards an ordinary young woman arrested on the streets far from her hometown, despite being accompanied by her brother, was an outrageous breach of honour, family integrity and traditional Iranian values in general.

The Islamic Republic based its propaganda on old Iranian-Shiite cult of victims of injustice, shaheeds, lionising soldiers that died during the war with Iraq in the 1980s as well as those who died in the revolution. Ironically, Mahsa has also become a political symbol for many; a symbol of an unequal fight with an oppressive system which has not fulfilled its promises of wealth redistribution, instead bringing down numerous sanctions on the country because of its imperialist policies and denying its people the most basic human rights. Many of the protesters express their anger about these issues.

Another important matter, discussed most frequently by the Western media, is the requirement for women to wear a hijab, stemming from a set of legal rules that discriminates against women. Taking off the hijab has become a symbol for those that oppose the Iranian regime, spreading rapidly on social media. The last several months saw an increase in the activity of the vice squad Guidance Patrol (gašt-e eršād), which persecutes women who refuse to wear a hijab or uncover too much of their bodies.

The Iranian government lay the blame for the protests on external forces, pointing toward Western-funded Persian-language media based outside of the country. On Wednesday, 28 September, Iran bombed the headquarters of the opposing Kurdish party in Iraq, citing similar reasons. These actions may be aimed to push the conflict into a different direction. At the time of the writing of this article, the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has not yet released a statement on the latest events.

Original text: www.nauka.uj.edu.pl

Images: unsplash.com, shutterstock.com

Polecamy również
Ambassador of Sri Lanka visits the Jagiellonian University

Ambassador of Sri Lanka visits the Jagiellonian University

Scientists continue to increase their knowledge of virus biology

Scientists continue to increase their knowledge of virus biology

Project co-authored by JU MC student awarded in the Direction: Space competition

Project co-authored by JU MC student awarded in the Direction: Space competition

Ambassador of Iceland visits the Jagiellonian University

Ambassador of Iceland visits the Jagiellonian University

Widok zawartości stron Widok zawartości stron